The Red Chancellor

"He is a Captain of Cavalry, Master of the Horse; a gentleman, noble, no doubt, by birth, but a simple, if magnificent, Rittmeister. The lady"--he glanced round towards the dark...

After a while I turned in my walk. It was time to get back to the ball-room if I would not appear to slight the honour shown me in the invitation. I had rather lost my bearings...

The dance was in full swing again. In the crowd I could not for the moment see any one of my three friends. The King was on a daïs chatting in animated fashion to a group standi...

I began to understand Von Lindheim's disquietude; all the same, although the Chancellor's system of espionage was pretty notorious, I did not quite see what my friend had to be...

If this State ball did not degenerate exactly into a romp, it grew more free and easy as I sat watching it and waiting for the Oberkammerer. Von Orsova seemed to have had enough...

Next morning I could hardly persuade myself that what I had seen the night before had not been all a dream. In the bright sunshine and in the active work-a-day life of the city,...

"I did not stand out," Von Lindheim said afterwards, "as it will be a good opportunity of giving the Count a hint about this wretched duel. He is a sort of confidential aide of...

"I'm a marked man," was all his comment as I finished my story, and he spoke the words in a tone of despairing conviction. "A marked man, Tyrrell, my good friend," he continued;...

He was a self-important, incompetent fellow; I could see that, and so just the man for our purpose. I had impressed upon Von Lindheim that his life depended on his playing his p...

As may be imagined, we returned to Von Lindheim's in a very different state of mind from that in which we had set out. Our friend's surprise at seeing Szalay, whom he had alread...

Schönvalhof was an old grey stone house, standing not far from the foot of pine-covered hills. A substantial dwelling, its interior more comfortable and homelike than my first v...

Nothing more happened for a day or two, except that Von Lindheim received a letter asking him to send word as soon as possible when he would be able to resume his duties, the Ho...

Fritz's death remained a mystery, at the solution of which we could only hazard various conjectures. But that it was a man's work I had little doubt. The death-wound in the thro...

"I must confess to feeling a little doubtful about them," I said. "I can't make the girl out at all; she is a most queer young woman, but of course Professor Seemarsh is a well-...

The next day was an eventful one. Its horrors come vividly back to me in writing of it. The curiosity which took me down to the rocks to learn a smattering of geology was at lea...

I was not greatly surprised to find the Count in the village. The question which exercised my mind for the rest of the way to Schönvalhof was whether he had any connexion with P...

I spent the ensuing hours in reasoning with Von Lindheim against his panic, and endeavouring to instil hope into him. Naturally, under circumstances which would have shaken the...

I walked along the Königstrasse, the principal street of Buyda, reflecting on my interview, and wondering how far I could trust the assurance of the Chancellor's last words. His...

"Ah! like so many of your countrymen you are hard to satisfy. You would rather go far and fare worse than stay at home. Well, enterprise at the possible expense of comfort is ad...

I wondered for a moment whether I was not dreaming. I read the words over twice again, searched the fan for others, and finding none, thrust it into my pocket. Then I went back...

It was scarcely dawn when I rode out of Buyda on my way back to Schönvalhof. With a feeling of relief I struck the high road and entered the open country. Buyda, beautiful city...

After dinner I left Von Lindheim, who was tired with his long ride after a sleepless night, and set out from the inn for a closer inspection of the Monastery. It was a good nigh...

On the next day a strange thing happened, of which a mere chance, in the first place, gave me the explanation. I was, needless to say, very disheartened at what seemed the absol...

Darkness had barely fallen when I was back again in the Monastery wood. Von Lindheim had offered to accompany me, but I had thought it better not to bring him. In the first plac...

The probabilities now were, that Fräulein Asta von Winterstein was still alive. Horribly shocked as I was by what I had seen, it was yet with a feeling of almost relief that, wh...

I resumed my watch that night, but all my vigilance and patience were without result. The Monastery was as dark and lifeless as ever. There was no more digging in the wood; for...

As we drew near the Monastery my worthy host gave me a short sketch of its history. How it had fallen from the high position it occupied in mediæval times to be a Hostel of Merc...

The Count and I went back to the other room, where we found his sister playing with a great dog of curious breed, something between a wolf-hound and a blood-hound. Coffee was br...

I have said that my position was in a recess formed between the wall and the side of the wardrobe. Standing here, I suddenly became aware of a slight sound quite close to me, so...

"I regret to have to inform you that I was forced to leave your roof abruptly at an early hour this morning in consequence of the unwarrantable intrusion into my bedroom of a pe...

"Chance stood my friend, as it has done all through," I said. "No doubt the fellow I knocked into the moat was the man who had been holding forth to you earlier in the evening,...

I had not been mistaken; it was a subterranean passage that I had come upon. The floor seemed to be on a considerable incline, and on groping my way a few yards in the ascending...

The room into which I looked was furnished in a style surprisingly in contrast to its situation. The walls were hung with rich brocaded curtains, the furniture and ornaments in...

At the inn Strode was waiting for me in some impatience, if not alarm, fearing foul play, from the delay in my return. After dinner we lit our cigars and strolled out. Then I to...

Next morning I packed a small valise and paid the landlord, telling him we were going on a shooting expedition to a district some twenty miles off, whence the time of our return...

I rushed with Strode to the doorway, and for a moment could discern nothing in the intense darkness. But just as I was beginning to hope it might be a false alarm a flash of lig...

My distress and grief at the sight were beyond description. That the brave fellow who had been such a tower of strength and to whom we owed certainly our lives should have falle...

The days that followed were some of the happiest of my life. There was, as may be imagined, more than ordinary delight in having been the instrument of that marvellous change fr...